Hind Ciba Anti-Oxidant Unit Opened

Built at a cost of about Rs 15 crore, the unit has an initial capacity of 1,000 tonnes per annum.

Speaking on the occasion, R Neubeck, global chief of Ciba's additives business, said additives constituted around 10 per cent of Ciba's 22-billion Swiss franc business worldwide.

He stressed on the importance of Ciba's Indian operations in the light of the growth of the market.

Felix Meyer, head of Ciba's global polymer additives business, said Ciba's anti-oxidants service centre is at Singapore and the R &D centre at Marly. Another anti-oxidant plant at Shanghai will be commissioned in the first quarter of 1997.

 

Meyer said that Ciba has a wide range of polymer additives with a host of applications ranging from Tunivin for polymers in the auto and furniture industry to 1024 MD for insulation purposes. The introduction of the whole range in India depended on the volume of demand in the Indian market, he said.

Phase one of manufacture at the Santa Monica plant will use phosphorus trichloride produced at the works while intermediate phenols will be imported from Japan and Spain. Phase two would entail the production of the second major input also at the plant. At present, plans for the same have not assumed concrete shape.

Satish Kalra, head of the additives division in India, said that Hind Ciba had been importing anti-oxidants and with this plant in place, imports worth Rs 15 crore would be saved. The plant will manufacture Irgafos 168 and Irganos B blends, which are phosphite stabilisers used in polymers like plastics.

Kalra said anti-oxidants are speciality chemicals used for preserving and enhancing specific qualities of substances to which they are added. The other categories of speciality chemicals include heat and drought stabilisers, corrosion inhibitors and photo initiators.

Pointing out that polymer consumption has healthy growth prospects, Kalra added that at present, the annual per capita consumption of plastics in the country was only 1.50 kilograms as compared to 65 kgs. for Thailand. The market for polymer additives in India is currently estimated at Rs. 50 crore and is growing at the rate of 15 per cent annually.

Offtake of polymer additives is not a big worry for Hind Ciba since it already has big names in basic polymer production